Language Learning Update: Wins and Struggles After 1 Month

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

 

Welp, we are well into month 2(I’m writing this Feb 16th) and month one was… a disappointment. What’s the quote ‘We overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in 5” well yeah my learning style and my plan didn’t line up to well.

Even as I write this I’m getting caught up in other things but we’re taking about month 1 for now. 

 

Recap of what REALLY happened and the Apps used:

 

Anki:

I added 300 words to my Anki decks for both German and French. Did I study them? Like 3 days of the whole month

 

Duolingo :

 I felt like I was constantly reviewing French words I already knew from previous schooling…

• J’ai 
• Tu as
• Elle / Il a 
• Etc…

 

so I tested out of the “Intro To French” level and I am now at the “French Foundation 1” level. I enjoy the fun, gamer aspect of Duolingo but as far as my study tools go…

I think I’m at a point where don’t get me wrong it’s helpful but I needed more of a challenge

 

This leads us to the tools I will integrate:

 One of the French learning sites that I was grateful to come across was Lawless French. There’s an adaptive learning tool that Lawless French is partnered with (KiwzBots) and the lesson plans that are generated adapt to how well (or in my case) how bad you do on the quizzes.

 

So far I’ve gathered that it’s a stickler on grammar and so I definitely think I’ll use it for that part of language learning. I’ve already found it pretty helpful (even though they said I need to still review the basics 😑).It did a good job at explaining some of the basic mistakes I make like not knowing when to use ‘de la’ vs ‘des’ (alot of choosing an article depends on if a noun is plural or masculine) so it is instilling how important is to memorize the gender of words as you aquire the words, not after the fact.(The KiwzBots section generates the stuff you should review and it is all in one area. So I’m digging that)

 

Another helpful site that you’re probably aware of if you’ve already started on this French learning journey is Apprendre 5mondre. I remember coming across it years but never really using it. Not because of the site but due to my lack of consistency

Now it seems we’ve come full circle and I very much think I’ll learn best through shows and entertainment so it’s back on the tool belt. I’ll utilize it more and keep yall updated.

 

A similar tool where entertainment is used to learn a language for German would be the site: learngerman.dw.com/

Since I’m very much a beginner the course I’m working through is ‘Nico’s Wegs’.We’re following the story of a guy who lost his luggage in Germany and he doesn’t know a lot of German and his name is (you guessed it) Nico.

 

And if that wasn’t enough tools:

Towards the end of the month after not seeing too much progress, I decided to dive in and get a year subscription to LingQ. Impulsive maybe. Useful? So far. It’s run by polyglot Steve Kaufmann. He has a Youtube channel where he goes over how he goes about learning languages and btw he knows like 20 languages so I think he knows what he’s talking about. (I’ll include a link to a video so you can check him out)

 The thing that got me to purchase his learning tool was that it’s based on the idea that reading helps you expand your vocabulary. Thinking back on my time learning my native (and only fluent language so far) English it couldn’t ring any louder of being the truth. Gesh there are still words I come across in material I read that I’m unfamiliar with. 

 

**Japanese and Portuguese are on the back burner til I reach at least a B1/B2 level with both of these (though whenever I feel like I really can’t be bothered with French or German I’m starting to go over the katakana and hiragana with Japanese nothing further)

 

Show Watch list: 

• How to sell drugs online fast (German)- It’s caught my attention
• Dogs of Berlin(German)
• “Call My Agent!”(French)
• Family Business(French)- I’ve already seen it and I was entertained

 

Updated Monthly Plan

**even though I mentioned alot of tools above I’m going to focus on only a couple this month to get in the rhythm. Being that my main language goals are speaking and listening I’ll put grammar further down on the list and incorporate grammar tools like Lawless French a bit later when I get a firm grasp on the language.

 

Tools to use this month (French):

• LingQ 
• CoffeeBreak French
• Netflix

 

Tools to use this month (German):

• LingQ 
• CoffeeBreak German
• Netflix

Top Goal: still to listening and speaking French and German to be able to travel and understand the train announcements and order food.

Month 2 Goals:

• How to introduce myself (in German)
• Get through 6 LingQ lessons per language)
• Listen to 5 Podcast episodes (I’m digging the Coffee Break podcast)
• Learn lyrics to a song
• Learn 100 words/language(include words regarding ordering lunch, transportation,)

 

My new tool belt seem more realistic for me being that I love reading and watching shows.

Welp, I have nowhere but up to go from here. Thank you for reading!